The Sign Said that "Complacency=Violence"

Sign #4: “Complacency=Violence”

                Spent some time considering this one.  At first glance, I was not convinced.  Turns out, that lack of conviction testifies to the power of complacency.  If it is not my truth, it is not truth.  But this is not about “my” truth.  This is accepting a greater truth, of a greater reality.  To accept it, my first step was to break it down from the whole into manageable parts. 

To start with the easiest, defining the commitment of violence.  In the case of this protest within BLM, it was the police officer pinning and killing George Floyd.  It continues a trend that goes back through the history of lynching, back through the slave history of our nation, the public execution of a colored person by whites.  That is the violence, where is the complacency? 

Was it the officers who were present but did nothing?

                To my mind, they were far more than complacent, they were complicit.  They carry the same guilt as Mr. Floyd’s murderer because they knew exactly what was going on and they did nothing to stop it.  They are no different from public gatherings at a lynching, where the people ‘of the community’ are as complicit as any person who laid hands on their fellow human being to end their life.  Because they don’t believe the black life matters.

                You know who else is not complacent?  Those who self-identify with the white supremacy movement.  Anyone who conforms to the tenets of white supremacy, that the ‘other races’ are inferior, that ‘they’ must be kept in their place, that ‘we’ are above them, they…we?...are complicit in what happened.

                The complacent are whites who self-identify as not being part of the white supremacy movement, who self-identify as not being racist, or at least ‘overtly’ racist, people who ‘feel bad’ when ‘things like this’ happen.  These are people who would “never” do anything like this themselves, and certainly would not condone it in others, yet people who will do nothing to change the world in which violence like this goes on.

                Now we come to the centerpiece of this sign.  “Complacency=Violence”.  It is easy to make the case that “Complicity=Violence”, but this?  There is an intensely persuasive cultural narrative that tells whites such an equivalency is just not possible.  It is that narrative that must be understood to be pierced.

                Because its like Kevlar, bullet proof material.  You know where its strength comes from?  Layers and layers of tightly woven fabric.  Not one or two or three layers are sufficient to stop a bullet, but pile up enough layers and the bullet, its power disrupted and dispersed by each successive layer, will eventually lose its effectiveness.

                We live in a nation where the cultural narrative is a layered barrier between the daily norm of interracial violence and the complacency of the self-identified non-racist white majority.  Here are a half dozen representative layers I have identified in my own interaction with the cultural narrative.

                Layer One is the Ideal of Equality.  As Jefferson put it, “All men are created equal.”  In the cultural narrative, this is romanticized that ‘men’ transcends race, gender, or anything that divides humanity.  Thus ‘racial division’ is, by this definition, a fallacy.

                Layer Two is the Presumption of Democracy.  We presume a peaceful process of debate and discussion, of concession, consensus, and binding agreement.  We express our opinion at the ballot box, at the public forum, in our freedom of speech and the press.  We fancy ourselves to be ‘civilized’.  Thus, each episode of violence we see in the media becomes, by this definition, an aberration.  And it is amazing how many aberrations we can absorb.   

                Layer Three is the Sieve of History.  A certain spin is put on events that are carefully selected.  So, the Civil War becomes Lincoln’s deliberate battle, on behalf of the whites, to end slavery in this country.  The definitive event is the Emancipation Proclamation.  That Lincoln’s view of slavery was far more ambivalent over time, that this Proclamation was as much an economic weapon in the North’s ‘total war’ against the South, that the Civil War is far more complicated in the history of our nation, those details are filtered out.  Instead, a narrowly defined interpretation of history is offered.

                Layer Four is the American twist on the Presupposition of Colonialism.  This is the presupposition of white superiority over the rest of the world, demonstrated as Europe colonized it “all”.  What is the twist?  America broke the notion of European ‘colonial’ superiority with our spin on “liberty” but never questioned the presupposition of white superiority.  Thus “Liberty” still masks that presupposition.

                Layer Five is the Legacy of the Great Fear.  The Great Fear in the antebellum south was the slave uprising.  Slaves on farms and plantations vastly outnumbered the local white populations and by the very nature of their tortured existence, were a threat, especially to the white women and children who were viewed as particularly vulnerable.  In 1791, this fear was realized just offshore with the slave uprising in Haiti, and the resultant slaughter of the whites.  The response was a culture of brutal repression and violent authoritarianism.  We carry the legacy of the Great Fear, its psychological vestiges in every moment that we walk past a young black man and feel anxiety. 

                Layer Six is the Response to the Great Fear.  Behind the Ideal of Equality, beneath the Presumption of Democracy, while the culture of brutal repression and violent authoritarianism have changed by degree, it has not gone away.  But the white community, those not complicit in the violence, we don’t see it.  We have colored friends, minority friends, but they ‘go with the flow’ of this cultural narrative that ‘all are equal’.  Do we have any idea how much trust is necessary for a person of color to share the stories of the reality of their experiences with white supremacy with someone who is white? 

                Layer Seven…Eight…Nine…how many more?  What else weaves into the Kevlar of the cultural narrative that puts blinders on the white majority so we do NOT see the reality of this nation’s racial underbelly?  We hide in the reinforced ignorance of our self-identification as not white supremacist.  The result is our living in a utopian view of the world that overlooks every ‘aberration’ to the Presumption of Democracy in the violence committed against people of color.  That’s why complacency =violence, because we refuse to do the work to penetrate through the ‘kevlar’ of the cultural narrative.

                That’s why I said that at first glance, I wasn’t convinced of the truth of this sign.  That is not because I did not know it to be true.  It is because I felt the shame of how long I have been a part of that complacency.  For that, I must ask forgiveness, drop the blinders, and speak the truth.

Peter Hofstra

The Next Sign: “Black Lives don’t just Matter. Black Lives Inspire. Black Lives Spread Wisdom” BLM Post 3

“Black Lives don’t just Matter.  Black Lives Inspire.  Black Lives Spread Wisdom”

                So you know where I am right now?  In the swamp of change.  Life as I know it is inadequate and my world view has to change.  I am a product of white privilege and that has to change.  Last time I was here, I was struggling with the issue, in the church, of the leadership of women.  I was raised with a powerfully biblical mandated privilege of authority over women.  Took years of practical experience and intense personal imagination and growth to recognize and begin to grow out of it.

                So here it comes again.  It is going to sound naïve, it is going to sound forced, it is going to sound half-baked, but that is my process of growth.  I have found myself struggling with whether I should even post this, much less advertise it.  The plan right now is to split the difference, post but not advertise…  Chicken?  Maybe.  So here goes.

                It may seem inappropriate for a white man to talk about tokenism.  But since it is a strategy of white supremacy, it is one that needs to be talked about.  What do I mean?  Let me pull out a media reference from my youth, from the television show “Good Times”.  Situation comedy placed in the Chicago public housing projects.  One scene in particular comes to mind. 

                Michael Evans, the youngest sibling, shared with his father that there was an African in the crew of Christopher Columbus when he “discovered” America.  John Amos-who played his father-was both amazed and pleased at this knowledge.  And it is an important thing to know.  But when its done right, a ‘token’ like this can forestall how much more needs to be done.

                The sign that is the title to this post speaks deep truth.  It goes far deeper than just a conversation about policing and minority communities.  Because, if we stop there, privilege continues to exercise its power.  It can be granted that black lives are important.  It can be granted that all lives are important (when it is recognized from the positions of power).  But if it can be taken that far and no further, well, it does not challenge white supremacy so much as allow privilege to redefine the terms and limits of the relationship.

                “We” (and it churns my gut to be inclusive in that way) can work it to our advantage that offering a peaceful compromise will allow “us” to set the terms of a cultural renegotiation.  And when we put the police officers on trial in Minneapolis, when we come to terms with the protests that continue to rock the nation, we can perhaps tamp things down to the uneasy ceasefire that has defined race relations since the Civil Rights Movement without making fundamental changes.

                At least that is what I see from the ‘seat of privilege’. 

                Until our cultural foundations shift, or are shifted, this could be enough, for the status quo.

                But the status quo is racist.  In the 1960’s it was Martin Luther King Jr. who insisted to Nichelle Nichols that she remain on the original Star Trek series because THAT is where change could be seen by the television audience.  And yet the piece of television racial history carried away from Star Trek is the first interracial kiss on network television.  Not that this moment did not have profound importance for the interpersonal sensibilities of the nation.  But the Science Officer or the Engineer or the Helmsman or the Navigator would take over command when the Captain went galivanting.  What about the episode where the Communications Officer, the one trained as the first line of contact to another species, took command?  That never happened. 

                Yes, I probably should have prefaced that with a ‘nerd alert’.

                It would be an interesting task to ask people to consider who inspires them.  Black Lives Inspire, but now many whites can follow through with a challenge like that?  Black Lives Spread Wisdom, but how many of us can take that much beyond Martin Luther King?

                How about the moment when Mohammed Ali was systematically pounding Ernie Terrell, taunting him with “What’s My Name?”  Terrell had referred to Ali as Cassius Clay during a pre-fight interview and that is where Ali made his stand, that he would not respond to his slave name.  I would like to say this is a story I have known and been moved by for much of my life instead of only recently finding it out.

                Now, there are a whole lot of other issues that surround this fight.  A system that pits a black man against a black man in this battle, the environment of 1966 (year of my birth), and a dozen other intersecting circumstances.  But Ali had a line and none could cross it.  That is powerful.  The moment of greatest regret I see in his life is when he was placed in a no-win situation and had to distance himself from Malcolm X.

                I have learned wisdom from his life.  The choices he made, in religion, in his career, in his life, I find myself looking them as battlefield choices in the war behind the civil rights movement of the 1960’s.  And it may be politically incorrect to speak in ‘violent’ vocabulary now, but we are not yet in a place where we can all sit down and have a beer together to work things out.

                If white privilege can get away with making a token gesture to satisfy and appease those we have privilege over, we will.  But our souls are in peril until the day that we break that cycle and see the true worth of all humanity.

Rev. Peter Hofstra

The Sign Said: “Systemic Racism is Killing Us. Am I Next?” BLM Rally 2

Part 2 of the BLM Rally.

The speeches were good, but the signs spoke to me (as you can see in the first post in this series).  The title of this piece is the first from that list: “Systemic Racism is Killing Us  Am I Next?”  Understanding the sign is straight forward.  Racism is systemic in America.  That is what led to the killing of George Floyd.  There is not space in a blog post, nor even in a textbook, to address how complete that truth is.  This is another answer to why Black Lives Matter over and against why every lives matter.  Systemic Racism is killing blacks, not everyone.  It is a singling out of one group of people among all people that is endemic in this nation.  But then the sign gets deeply personal.  Shall we look into the face of the young African American woman who was carrying the sign and personify what it asks.  Is She Next?

As a privileged white, it is not too difficult to blow off the first part of that message.  Dismiss ‘systemic racism is killing us’ as rhetoric or hyperbole.  The second part is a little harder, especially if there is a face to tie to the message.  We must shut down our empathy to blow off that part. 

But here is what this sign did for me.  It pierced through the abstract of ‘white privilege’ (and abstracting ‘white privilege’ is an excellent way of denying white privilege) and made me see one place where white privilege was active in my heart.

So let me confess that the first reaction I had to the sign was a gut wrench reaction to blow it off.  It made me feel uncomfortable (which means, for me, that the truth was gnawing on my denial).  If I were a blowhard white supremacist, I would probably embrace my ignorance.  But I am not.  I am a white liberal, self-identifying with an open mind and open heart in a poor attempt to be like Jesus.  But there was knee jerk disbelief that came spitting out of some deep place of my soul.  It is a racist streak wrapped up in a liberal utopian attitude.

What?  Well, America is a good place.  Yah, we had slavery, but the Good Guys won the Civil War.  We lost the Peace, but that was corrected a century later.  Justice was triumphant in the Civil Rights Movement.  Sure, racism is still there, but it is more like the Xtreme Sports in our freedom of speech.  Reaching into the past, the utopian word ‘colorblind’ comes bubbling to the surface.  America’s eyes have gone colorblind, we no longer see the color of skin, so is violence due to skin color really a thing?  Maybe in isolated cases…because we liberals are utopian and not everyone has gotten to our enlightenment quite yet.

Liberal Utopianism.  Ignorant racism.

The concrete expression of my white privilege was the assumption that we have grown into what Thomas Jefferson wrote, that “all men (and I use ‘men’ with the old fashioned ‘inclusive’ meaning) are created equal”.  But the reality is that all people are sure as hell not treated as equal.  From a place of white privilege, my espoused blindness to color allowed me to deny the reality of the systemic racism that systematically snuffs out black lives in the nation that I love.

But what does it say about the power of privilege when it takes the application of classical empathy, ‘walking in another person’s shoes’, walking in the shoes of a person who lives in the daily reality that a wrong moment or a bad set of circumstances with law enforcement or a white crazed on the drug of ‘supremacy’ can bring their death?

Let me tell you about some real privilege I have received from the Black Lives Movement.  African American friends have shared stories of their experiences that are summed up in this sign.  We are in a time when things are changing enough to create the safe spaces where these stories can be told to whites.  If only we whites can truly see through our privilege to the reality of our nation, so we can undo the system of racism that holds sway.

Rev. Peter Hofstra

The Metuchen BLM Rally, June 13, 2020 A First Response

When it was time to protest, we protested.  But when it was time to listen, I tried to chronicle the messages that were present that day.  I did not get them all, to my chagrin, but these are many of the signs that spoke at the Black Lives Matter rally in Metuchen, NJ  on June 13, 2020.

Systemic Racism is Killing Us.  Am I Next?

Black lives don’t just Matter  Black Lives Inspire.  Black Lives Spread Wisdom

Complacency=Violence

Silence is Violence

Enough is Enough

No Justice, No Peace

Say Their Names

Black Lives Matter

I Believe Black Lives Matter

Make Calls.  Write Letters for Change.  Ask Me How

Matter Is The Minimum

End White Privilege

What We Want is Justice.

Smash Racism.  Injustice Anywhere is A Threat to Justice Everywhere.

None of Us Can Be Silent

If I Hid Black Americans in My Uterus, Would Their Lives Finally Matter?

Let All Be Judged by the Content of their Character

We See You.  We Hear You.  We Stand With You.

BLM: With a list of over thirty names of those who have died

The most oft-repeated counter-sign to “Black Lives Matter” that I have seen is “All Lives Matter”.  As a tactic of counter-protest, it is rather effective.  At the very least, it dilutes the message, submerging Black Lives into the sum total of the value of human life.  At the worst, it presumes to set up a contrast.  It becomes an ‘either/or’ proposition, ‘black lives’ versus ‘all lives’.  Because there is a protest and a counter-protest, each with their own signs, the unspoken message is “pick one”.

 Several speakers at the rally addressed this concern, “all lives” versus “black lives”.  They were very straight forward in their response.  OF COURSE ALL LIVES MATTER!  What then is the connection between the two?

We were in MLK Park for the rally, a fitting location, and a sign with his words explains things most succinctly.  “Injustice Anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”  There were two versions of that sign at the rally that I saw.  One laid this out as a quote alongside a picture of the Great Man.  The other began with “Smash Racism”; which is listed above.

Yes, all lives matter.  But what I am coming to understand is that the injustice of black lives shortened far too soon by encounters with law enforcement in the present media arc, and the history of impunity where black lives were snuffed out in the domination of white supremacy, what I am coming to understand that, in the light of this violence and misery, until we TRULY understand that black lives matter, all lives are at risk.

So don't be fooled.  Until black lives receive justice, all lives are tainted by injustice.

Rev. Peter Hofstra

My Burgers: Round 1

                So it is not just about finding burgers of delight and disappointment in the world around me.  It is about finding my own balance of wonder and delight in these selections of beef sandwich.  This is about the ones I made for Memorial Day (observed) 2019.   One of the truisms I have a difficult time refuting is that ‘the taste is in the fat’.  80/20 chuck has been referred to in a couple places as the best beef for a good hamburger.

                80/20 is the meat to fat ratio.  This kind of meat is 1/5 fat.  Put down ten dimes for a dollar and remove two for the fat-if the burger was a dollar…  So here’s a question, what sounds better to you?

“This ground beef is 20% fat.”  OR

“This ground beef is 80% meat.”?

                An interesting work-around to this is the claim that the grilling process will burn or melt off the fat.  If you have ever enjoyed a good grill top fire, you know there is truth to that.  I even have the sweet spot on my grill where it seems to be just a little hotter and the flames really flare up.

                Irrespective, 80/20 was not going to do it for me this Memorial Day weekend.  I went with 90/10.  What cut of meat was it?  Whatever Wegmans was putting out.  Lesson in mindfulness for the next time, figuring out what cut of beef I am getting. 

                A cool trick to keep burgers from turning into oblong meatballs on the grill is to essentially turn them into donuts.  When you form the patty, thin out the middle before putting the meat on the grill.  I have read an “oh, that’s cool” explanation for why it works, which would be good fodder for a future post (when I find it again).

                So the ground beef is 10% fat.  The packs tend to run from 1.15 to 1.25 lbs, so four patties per pack and it is more impressive than a quarter pound pre-cook weight.  The main flavoring for these burgers was the Grill Mates Applewood Rub by McCormick’s.  And, being me, I did not rub it into the meat but added it to the beef before creating the patties.  That and garlic/salt from a grinder and some garlic powder formed the ‘spice pallet’. 

                If anyone has followed these ramblings this far, the comment, “Hey moron, that was a RUB you MIXED into the ground beef for the burgers” is a fair observation.  To which I reply that is it probably good that I am focusing on mindfulness in my food blog.

                At the conclusion of all of this, I think the burgers were pretty tasty.  The applewood provided a sweetness to them that was not unpleasant, but probably not my favorite.  I think I need to try this once more, if for no other reason than to rub on the rub. 

                These were in fact, cheeseburgers, with deli American, tomato, and a little romaine lettuce (not a big lettuce fan on burgers). 

                All in all, I will remember these burgers (in large part because I am being mindful about them in this blog post).  The applewood rub was good-probably even better if I used it right.  And at least I did not make these burgers like I was making mini-meatloaves (which is another post). 

Worship: When It Suddenly Makes Sense

                This is about worship.  “I Give My Heart to Thee Lord, Eagerly and Sincerely.”  Maybe the most useful thing John Calvin has ever taught me.  That will cause me some trouble with the purists.  I am the one who complained that “The Institutes of the Christian Religion”, Calvin’s masterwork of theology and the Christian life, really needs a fresh translation into more contemporary English.  Maybe someone needs to do for the Institutes what The Message did for the Bible.

                Well, that is a bunch of Church-y insider jargon that is bound to lose a lot of readers.  This phrase surrounds the Seal of John Calvin, which is him offering his burning heart up to God.  It is the eagerly and sincerely offered heart to the work and worship of Jesus. 

                What confused me about the image all these years I have seen it in the Stained Glass at church is that I mistook it for the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  Not that the Sacred Heart of Jesus is not important.  It most certainly is.  But it is not mine.  It is iconography, religious artwork, that I am going to explore.  What took me by surprise was that the burning heart that John Calvin offers to the Lord was unknown to my experience before now.

                Which is really strange, because I must have been exposed to it in some form.  It is also the Seal of Calvin College and Seminary, the central institutions of learning of the Christian Reformed Church, in which I was reared. 

                Worship is a reactive enterprise.  God did great by me.  In gratitude I will seek to do great by God, in my own broken and sinful way.  I pledge my heart, I pledge eagerness, I pledge sincerity.  Up to this moment, I was caught up in the forms of worship-prayers, singing, sermons, not in the heart-nature.  This is not to say that I do not worship the Lord.  It is to say that worship has been fulfilling more by the intervention of the Holy Spirit than by the deliberate movement of my heart and soul.

                The next question is how to work this out in my life and worship.  The joy is that this invests everything I do with the possibility of being worship.  The fear is how much of my life is uninvested in my Lord, much less invested eagerly or sincerely.

The Quarter Pounder with Bacon: Not the Bacon Smokehouse Burger

I went to McDonalds for my first burger review.  It’s one I have very much enjoyed, the “signature crafted recipe” Bacon Smokehouse burger.  According to the news release, in addition to the standard elements, what pushes it up is a ‘sweet and smoky bacon-onion sauce’.  (From online press release dated June 25, 2018).  But my local franchise was out of the sauce when I made my order.

                We eventually negotiated on the Quarter Pounder with Bacon as a ‘substitute’, which delayed the order as it is freshly cooked to order.  And I made the cardinal mistake of ‘settling’ for a burger.  It was a fast food burger, beef, cheese, bacon, the regular add-ons, and a reminder of the NEED of mindfulness when it comes to my food.  

               I think the most interesting thing about the ¼ Pounder was how it trounced the failed attempt by Dairy Queen to introduce 1/3 of a pound burger.  It failed because most people thought that it was SMALLER than its McD competitor.  Not a good sign when the most interesting thing about something is the useless trivia I can harvest from my memory about it.

                Was the Quarter Pounder with Bacon a bad burger?  No.  Worse than that.  It was an indifferent eating encounter.  That has been my experience with most of the fare from the fast food places.  Wendy’s and Burger King have their own versions.  My favorite burger name comes from Wendy’s…the Baconator…but more bacon is sometimes just more bacon.

                So why even include it?  As a baseline?  As a tribute to the Good, the Bad, and the Indifferent?  No, more like a reminder to myself at how much McDonald’s upped the Burger Game with the Bacon Smokehouse.